Mélanie Berliet

I was Carl’s underling, but I refused to consider myself a victim. Our audacious, perpetual flirtation was not one-sided. I could have ignored him. I could’ve avoided the girlish smiles and spurned the extra attention. Foreseen that it might not end well.

What I never expected was that one of these guys would become a constant source of entertainment.

I’m neither a scientist nor a moralist, but as soon as I learned about Liquid Trust, I had to know if the stuff worked.

You need another person to make sure you’re breathing and to prevent you from choking on your own vomit.

“He wanted you to cover your body in — what?”

As rallying cries go, “Artista, Erotica, Utopia!” is among the more ludicrous, especially for an underground pop-up strip club, where eager young women perform awkward erotic dance routines for a members-only crowd of well-off young gentlemen.

Who’s to say what I should or should not do about an appendage? Does my boyfriend think he has power of attorney over my body?

As the reality of what I’d gotten myself into set in, I began to have doubts. Maybe my parents were correct and I was, in fact, an absolute loon.